Monthly Archives: October 2006

Fall Cleaning OR Spring Cleaning

I have always heard of “Spring cleaning” but for me “Fall cleaning” makes more sense. Afterall, when Spring comes, I want to get outside and work in the yard. Colder weather makes me glad to be inside the house, especially in the morning.

I set a goal of one room a day, cleaning from top to bottom . For me, starting with the least used room helps. You can get it cleaned faster and it is encouraging to have one finished. If I don’t have a lot of time one day, that’s when I do one of the bathrooms.

Also, it is amazing how many things I find and say “oh, that’s where that was” or “I didn’t realize I still had that.”

I also like to take a clothes basket with me as I clean. I take anything out of the room that needs to go to another room and put it in the basket at the doorway. It saves me time. I especially found this helpful when I had a two-story house (running up and down the stairs) and when my kids were young. It is amazing what you find in your small children’s bedrooms. Often car keys and the television clicker end up in your child’s toybox. lol

Fall is also the perfect time to “spring clean” because you find all kinds of things to take to Goodwill or Salvation Army and get a receipt for your taxes which will be filed in a couple months.

Another good thing about “Fall cleaning” is a lot of people have company during the holidays. Your house will be ready for those overnight guests.

It is also a great time to clean out your spices in your kitchen cabinet. Afterall, the holidays are coming and you will be spending a lot of extra time in the kitchen cooking those holiday meals. Spices that have expired…not good. I find it helpful to date the spices as I purchase them.

So, get a start on your “spring cleaning” by doing it this Fall. Have fun.

Fall gardening projects

This is a great time of the year to work outside.

I have my compost bin that I will be filling with branches, leaves, and weeds as I clean up my two acre yard.

I am preparing for my first garden this spring so there is work to be done there, too. My neighbor has generously been putting her horse manure and leftover hay that was dropped on the ground over the fence and into my garden area. I will till this into the soil. It was an area that was previously my chicken yard so it is pretty much bare of grass and the chicken manure should add fertilizer to the soil.

I saw soil tester kits at the hardware/feedstore type places. I think I will get one and test my soil maybe by January. That way I can see what I need to add to the soil to get some crops to grow. My sandy soil doesn’t look like it would grow much. North Carolina soil is so black and rich. I think anything will grow there.

Now, I will need to decide what to grow. Only things I know we will eat. I am thinking potatoes, corn, tomatoes, string beans, zucchini or squash, and maybe onions. I just want to make sure I don’t grow so much that it becomes a job instead of a joy.

I am looking forward to planting some flowering bulbs this year, too. I need to research when they get planted. I saw a lot of stuff about squirrels digging the bulbs up. I certainly have an abundance of squirrels. Martha Stewart was showing how to plant the bulbs in wire baskets. Interesting.

I also have an area under a couple big oak trees that I have put a double chair made by my brother-in-law, James. I want to make that area surrounded by plants and flowers. Like a little flower garden. I believe the best way to do that is with potted plants. I have tried growing plants under those big trees and none have really flourished. I am thinking clay pots of various sizes would be nice. I am wanting a trellis, too and concrete blocks on the ground to make a porch look.

I have a book called “Home Landscaping Southeast Region” by Roger Holmes and Rita Buchanan which has some really creative ways to decorate your yard. It even shows you how to build a trellis, pond, retaining wall, and walkways, too.

I dug some crepe myrtles from my neighbors ditch a few months ago and planted them along my fence line. I have been considering starting my own home plant/tree nursery.
My daughter, Bonnie is moving here this week. I am hoping she will be interested in starting some projects with me. She is very creative and artistic so it could be a challenging, fun thing for her.

Good luck with your fall projects. I am looking forward to some cooler weather. It was mighty darn hot this year in Florida.

Chicken stories

If you have chickens for very long, you get use to burying a few. In the last five or six years since I have had chickens, we have buried our fair share. My husband buries them along the fence line near the chicken yard. He is so silly. He comments occasionally that we will have a good crop of chickens growing there one of these days.

For awhile there, everytime I went to NC without my husband, one of my chickens died. He said they missed me and died of loneliness.

One day, a chicken died and my husband was getting ready to bury it. Before he put the chicken in the hole, he took the chicken over to the side of the fence so the other chickens could say goodbye to the dead one.

Another time, he took a dead chicken over to the side of the fence and told the hens they better start laying more eggs or else. The funny thing was….we got four eggs the next day instead of two. Co-incidence…I think not. I didn’t know my husband could talk chicken.

My neighbor, Gail also has chickens. One of her chickens jumped her fence and ended up in my sister-in-law’s back yard with her dogs. Needless to say, that hen didn’t make it. Gail is so soft-hearted that she couldn’t bear to even see the dead animal. My husband offered to go retrieve the dead bird and bury it along the fence line with our dearly departed chickens. Gail also has a beautiful horse. Calvin pointed out that if her horse dies, he is not volunteering for that burial job.

We have two of the South American chickens that lay green shelled eggs. They look like colored Easter eggs. I understand they also come in other pastel colors…I think I heard they lay blue, yellow, pink???? Araucana chickens they are called. I had to look that up.

Remembering my Dad-Nov 22, 1913 to Oct 9, 2006

I have been so blessed to have my Father live to be almost 93 years old. My Mom is 83 and dealing with his death is probably the hardest thing she has ever had to do in her life. They were marrried almost 58 years. What a void there will be in all of our lives but especially in hers.

Dad’s legacy is l0 children, 33 grandchildren, 33 great grandchildren, and l0 great great grandchildren.

My Dad was in the Marine Corps and served in World War II, the Korean Conflict and Vietnam. I have been with him when he had on his hat that stated he served in all three wars and people would stop and shake his hand and thank him for serving our country.

My Father was saved and baptized when he was 89 years old. He said he didn’t want to go to church until he knew he could be committed and not be a hypocrite. Mom and Dad were baptized together that day, though Mom was previously baptized.

We all remember what a stinker he was when he was younger. But somehow, once he got saved, all that was old news. He read the Bible every day and went into the bedroom and prayed for over 30 minutes every night on his knees.

He was a great father. He taught us to work hard and be responsible. He loved my mother with all his heart. When I visited them in NC and slept in the spare bedroom, I could hear parts of their conversation as they were saying goodnight to each other. As they said they loved each other, I found it hard not to cry. It was always so sweet.

Dad wasn’t always good about saying I love you when we were younger. I remember being in the hospital with a suspected appendicitis. When Dad came into the room and saw me hooked up to a bunch of equipment, he immediately went down the hallway with his voice raised asking for the doctor. This was the first time I realized how much he loved me. He hated for his kids to be sick. My sisters shared memories of Mom hiding us when we stayed home from school sick (when Dad came home for lunch).

So, keep us in your prayers, especially my Mom. Often when once parent dies, the other follows shortly after. We could not bear to lose Mom, too. Dad was our strength and Mom is our heart.

My car mirrors are not bird perches

I went outside the other day to get into my car and poop was all over the mirror and side of my car. Disgusting. I got the hose and cleaned it off and dried it and thought, I better not park over there anymore.

Much to my surprize, I realized later the other mirror and side of the car was also covered with bird poop. Then my husband mentioned he needed to get the hose and clean off his mirror and side of his car. Okay, that’s weird.

So, now I am tying a plastic grocery bag over the mirrors whenever I have the car parked at the house. I tried just parking in a different place–about 40 ft away but that didn’t do the job.

My neighbor said she saw the bird perched on my mirror and attacking my windows. She said it fluttered at the side of the window and kept slamming into it for about an hour. She also said it has been slamming into her French doors and pooping all over her Hot Tub.

I think I have figured out which bird is making mischief in my life. It is a Mockingbird that sits on the lines and nearby poles. I don’t know how long birds live but I am thinking that this bird’s life may be cut short.

Extra bathroom space

When my two daughters shared a bathroom, there never seemed to be enough places to sit their lotions and bottles of bubble bath and stuff like that.

I used a plastic shoe rack that hangs over the door to hold the extra bottles of stuff that normally sat around the sink. It sure made cleaning the bathroom easier, too.

Today, Calvin and I have one hanging in our bathroom, too. We have Listerine, Hydrogen Perioxide, bubble baths, disposable razors, my curling iron, baby powder, nail polish remover, and so on hung behind our bathroom door. No one sees the stuff unless they close our bathroom door from the inside. Fortunately, we have a guest bathroom.

Yes, I do have a cabinet under my sink but I keep my cleaning products there plus extra soap, toothpaste, toilet paper and hair products there.

I was thinking as a young military wife with very little money and normally living in small quarters, I wish I thought of that idea back then.

Actually, at Wal-mart I saw a picture on the front of one these shoe rack type things that hang over the door showing various things stuffed in it instead of shoes. I was glad to see others were doing what I have been doing for a very long time.

Powder ant killers are dangerous

My nephew recently put ant killer on his lawn. He used a powder on his lawn on Friday evening and by Saturday morning he was hospitalized.

Granules seem to be a lot safer. Also, make sure it isn’t windy and don’t let it touch your skin. Don’t distribute the ant killer barefoot or wearing shorts and flip flops. Cover yourself up.

At first, the hospital doctors thought he had a stroke. He had seizures, too. He was confused and couldn’t even recognize people at times. He had to really concentrate to remember how to write his name. Serious!!!!!!

It is very important to READ LABELS before you use chemicals on your lawn or anywhere else for that matter. I am the world’s worse about not reading labels and instructions. Even when it comes to putting things together. I have had a fax/scanner/copier/printer for two weeks and I haven’t hooked it up because I know I need to read the instructions. Not much of a reader either. So many confessions today.

So be careful out there.